nodded. “Thanks, Henry.”
Henry stood. “Let’s get him bagged, and I’ll call the ME.”
They opened the body bag on the dirt floor.
“Careful,” Tessa said.
Logan’s stomach did a slow sick roll as he helped transfer the body to the bag. On the bright side, the corpse remained intact.
The funeral home employees arrived and collected the body with a wheeled gurney. Logan, Tessa, and Henry followed the gurney up the stairs and out of the house.
“The ME is doing the autopsy first thing in the morning,” Henry said. “I’m going over to the mainland to observe. Let me know if you need anything.”
“Thanks, Henry,” Tessa said. “I have to update the sheriff.”
She lifted her phone to her ear and turned away.
Henry drove off behind the hearse.
Logan inhaled a lungful of fresh air. Even outside, the scent of decomposition filled his nostrils and throat. He sniffed his clothes. They stank. Maybe he would burn them.
Tessa lowered her phone and nodded toward the street. “Bruce is here.”
Bruce parked behind her vehicle and climbed out.
“Is your mom all right?” Logan asked.
“She will be.” Bruce nodded. “Julie is keeping an eye on her. I thought you’d need a hand processing the scene.”
“You would be correct.” Tessa gestured to the house.
“You’re helping too, Logan?” Bruce asked.
Logan said, “Tessa and I were having lunch when the call came in.”
And Logan would not let her respond to a possible explosion without backup.
“Let’s get busy.” Tessa led the way back into the house.
For the next eight hours, they bagged and tagged evidence. It was nine o’clock by the time they’d finished, and twilight had settled over the street.
“No one lives here, so there’s no need to release the scene just yet.” Tessa sealed the back of the house by stretching crime scene tape over the back door and in front of the porch steps. Except for the basement and the small makeshift camp in the living room, they hadn’t found any evidence that seemed relevant to the murder. But they loaded what they did find in the back of Tessa’s SUV.
“Call me if you need help in the morning.” Bruce headed for his vehicle. He was scheduled to be on patrol until midnight. He wouldn’t report to the station until late afternoon, unless Tessa called him in.
“Don’t forget to get some sleep.” Tessa waved, then glanced at the sky, her mouth tight.
“You should get home to your mom,” Logan said, opening the door of her SUV. “It’s dark.”
“I know,” she said as she slid behind the wheel. Logan rode shotgun. She drove back to the station, where Logan’s Range Rover waited. “Your grandmother is at my house. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”
“She is pretty awesome.” Logan’s grandmother had raised him and his sister.
Jane knew everything that happened on the island. She ran the Widow’s Knitting and Activist group, an organization that did far more than knit. They kept tabs on the whole community. Since Tessa’s mom had grown ill, the members had taken turns staying with her while Tessa worked.
Tessa and Logan unloaded the evidence and logged it in. Tessa stored it in a locked cabinet in the back of the station. Of all the items they’d removed from the house, only the backpack and sleeping bag seemed directly related to the case, but better to have too much evidence than too little.
“I’m available tonight,” Logan said. “If you need help. I could bring a pizza.”
She shook her head. “Thanks, but if Mom is quiet tonight, I’m going right to bed.” Her small smile was sad. Her mother suffered from dementia. Nights could be bad, and Tessa shouldered all the responsibility.
He kissed her goodbye, then drove back to his cabin at the edge of the state park. He stripped on the front porch and left his foul-smelling clothes outside before heading immediately into the shower. He scrubbed down three times.
He wished he could be there to help her. Tessa was stubbornly independent, but despite the fact that she lived with her mother and teenage sister, when she was at home, emotionally, she was alone.
3
Pushing the murder out of her mind, Tessa drove home, parked, and stepped out of her vehicle. All she wanted was a shower. Maybe two showers and an extra shampoo. A few clucks drew her to the side yard, where her mother’s chickens roamed their wire enclosure.
She sighed. Her teenage half sister, Patience, was supposed to lock up the animals before dark. Raccoons, foxes, and loose dogs were all threats to the chickens.
Tessa crossed the